Publication

In cooperation with the Asian Institute of Technology and the United Nations Environment Programme (AIT-UNEP), and the Learning Institute, the Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia has seen great value in learning more about climate change adaptation in Cambodia. Asking questions around what best supports positive adaptation, questions of capacity gaps and of those related to barriers that impede ‘good’ adaptation outcomes, but to answer these, first we must understand how local assets are mobilized in times of climate stress, what constitutes good adaptation and mal-adaptation, and how support for adaptation is being carried out.

Climate change adaptation provides for tangible responses to foreseen climate related impacts. In Cambodia, the climate change autonomous adaptations have proceeded unchecked for effectiveness and planned adaptation responses have not met local expectations and have led to a negative consequence, known as mal-adaptation.

This study is part of a participatory research process in Cambodia and tries to answer questions on how to identify this mal-adaptation and mitigate it, how to support the movement of good autonomous adaptation strategies toward effective and efficient planned responses, and how to bring inclusiveness to climate change adaptation decision making. To answer these questions, the focus has been on identifying what is happening in respect of climate change adaptation and rural development at the village and district level, and then move upward and downward. The approach taken is to develop a better understanding of what drives climate change adaptation responses and to capture practice-based knowledge, whether negative or positive for effective and efficient climate change adaptation support.